TRANSLATIONS

SUBSCRIBE

Search:

We’ll put more police in public housing, crack down on illegal gun trafficking, and fill vacant apartments where criminals hide out. And we’ll provide more programs like midnight basketball leagues to help our young people say no to gangs and guns and drugs.

– President Bill Clinton, April 16, 1994

…

EPILOGUE: One of Bob Dole’s most-ran campaign ads in 1996 attacked Clinton’s inner-city midnight basketball program initiative, which cost (according to Dole) $76 million. The ads called the program, among other things, “a subtle and sickening appeal to racism.” The midnight basketball program was eventually scrapped.